e, owing to the collection of ice and snow on a
floor, which melted when the salamanders were started, the lower ends of
several of the superimposed columns were eaten away, with the result
that when the forms were withdrawn, these columns were found to be
standing on stilts. Only four 1-in. bars were present, looped at
intervals of about 1 ft., in a column 12 ft. in length and having a
girth of 14 in., yet they were adequate to carry both the load of the
floor above and the load incidental to construction. If no such
reinforcement had been provided, however, failure would have been
inevitable. Thus, again, it is shown that, where theory and experiment
may fail to justify certain practices, actual experience does, and
emphatically.

Mr. Godfrey is absolutely right in his indictment of hooping as usually
done, for hoops can serve no purpose until the concrete contained
therein is stressed to incipient rupture; then they will begin to act,
to furnish restraint which will postpone ultimate failure. Mr. Godfrey
states that, in his opinion, the lamina of concrete between each hoop is
not assisted; but, as a matter of fact, practically regarded, it is, the
coarse particles of the aggregate bridging across from hoop to hoop; and
if--as is the practice of some--considerable longitudinal steel is also
used, and the hoops are very heavy, so that when the bridging action of
the concrete is taken into account, there is in effect a very
considerable restraining of the concrete core, and the safe carrying
capacity of the column is undoubtedly increased. However, in the latter
case, it would be more logical to consider that the vertical steel
carried all the load, and that the concrete core, with the hoops, simply
constituted its rigidity and the medium of getting the load into the
same, ignoring, in this event, the direct resistance of the concrete.

What seems to the writer to be the most logical method of reinforcing
concrete columns remains to be developed; it follows along the lines of
supplying tensile resistance to the mass here and there throughout, thus
creating a condition of homogeneity of strength. It is precisely the
method indicated by the experiments already noted, made by the
Department of Bridges of the City of New York, whereby the compressive
resistance of concrete was enormously increased by intermingling wire
nails with it. Of course, it is manifestly out of the question,
practically and economically, to reinforc